We're Stuck Together Who: Grace and Kyle Setting: Evening, Farm/Garden Area, then near the elevators
After spending part of her day in the music room, Grace decided that what she wanted to do was spend her evening outside. It was something that she hadn't been allowed to do in prison, so she was going to take advantage now. Sure, the weather wasn't exactly ideal, but that wasn't going to stop her. A little water never hurt anybody, after all.
What she hadn't counted on was, while on her way to the garden, that there would be a loud noise and the lights would go out. She was more...confused by it than really worried. Surely the higher ups would realize what had happened and fix it quickly enough, so she simply decided to go about her business like she had been planning to do before. Plus, now the night sky was giving off the little bit of light that was around, with the stars in the sky. At least it would be a lovely evening for star gazing, water aside.
Kyle was trying not to panic. It had seemed like a sound idea. He'd been driving himself up the wall waiting for time to go see Leandro and hopefully sort out where they stood. He hadn't been able to concentrate on anything - not even his art. So, he'd decided that he was going to go for a walk. As far as possible, which, all things considered, wasn't far. Block B was the furthest he could get. It helped. A little.
Yup, it seemed like a sound plan - right until the power failed. And it was only at that moment that Kyle had realised that no power meant no elevators. And no elevators meant no way back to Block A. And no way back to Block A meant no meeting up with Lex. And again, no power meant no way to let the guy know he wasn't actually being intentionally stood up.
Yeah, Kyle was not a happy bunny right now. He'd rushed from corner to corner in the block, looking for some kind of staircase, but there was nothing. No way back. He decided that the only thing left for him to do was head back to the elevator and wait. Hope that the power got restored sooner rather than later. Despondently, he cut back across the farm, headed for the elevator.
When Grace had first heard someone run by, she hadn't paid it much mind. It seemed that there was always someone rushing around this place. She didn't see the point, since they couldn't go anywhere. Might as well relax and take things at an even keel since they couldn't go anywhere.
When she heard what sounded like the same person (by the footsteps) rushing around again, though, she decided to pay it some mind. She turned her attention away from the stars, looking toward the paths and seeing a young man hurrying along, looking troubled. Of course, the electricity had just went out, so maybe he was worried about that.
"Are you OK?" she called out to him, more out of curiosity than a true concern. Maybe there was something else going on as well.
"Not really, no," Kyle told her, coming to a stop as soon as he realised he wasn't alone. He pushed his now wet hair back off his face, tilting his head up into the rain for a moment as he closed his eyes and tried to let go of some of the stress. After all, this was out of his control. "This blackout couldn't have happened at a worse time. I'm meant to be meeting someone, but now I can't get back," he explained.
She frowned when he said that. She knew that she'd be quite upset if she missed a meeting, or if anyone missed one with her. "There aren't any emergency stairs or anything?" she asked him. It seemed like a big safety violation if there weren't. Why would a rehabilitation facility fail to put something together like that, she wondered.
"And that would be what you saw me running around looking for," Kyle said with a sigh, sitting himself down on the wet ground. It wasn't as if he wasn't already rain-soaked, after all. A fork of lightning split the night sky, lighting them for a moment. Kyle looked over, taking in the woman he had been talking to - he hadn't really seen her around before. She kind of reminded him of his mother, but he figured that might not actually be politic to say. It would have been a compliment to his mind though.
It actually would have been a compliment to Grace as well. She was fairly sure that she was the oldest one here, except for maybe the Asian man she had also spotted. Plus, she loved being a mother. "Here, you shouldn't be sitting on the ground like that," she said to him, reaching down to pull him up off the ground. Despite everything, some of these people pulled out the mothering instincts in here. Imagine that. "I know there are at least some chairs that we can sit in."
Kyle allowed himself to be pulled and led. "I'm already wet," he pointed out. "I was just gonna go sit by the elevator and wait for the power to kick back in."
"Then I'll go sit with you," Grace offered. She probably shouldn't be out here in the rain too much, anyway. "I'm sure that the power will be back up soon. This place has to have some sort of back up generator or something along those lines." This place would be poorly planned if they didn't have something like that.
"You know, you don't have to," Kyle averred. "Unless - are you stuck over here as well? My room's over in Block A, so it's not even like I have anywhere to go." He chuckled to himself a little. "Great night to go exploring, huh?" Not that that was what he had been doing, but it worked for now.
"Well, I suppose I am stuck over here now, although I don't have anything pertinent to get to like you do," she explained to him as they started to walk. "My room is in Block A as well. So it looks like we're stuck together until the electricity starts up again." Which she hoped was soon. "It would be a nice night for that if we had a flashlight." Without one, though, they would be wandering in the darkness. Not her idea of fun.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Kyle agreed. "First thing I'm gonna do once I have access to a computer again is put in a request for one of those little keyring flashlights? then I can carry it round with me easy enough." Kyle was beginning to have a list of things he was going to do when the power was restored, but that was the artist all over. Always overthinking everything. He was dangerous when left alone with his thoughts.
"That's actually not a bad idea," Grace told him. She was sure that she might do that herself, or ask for one of those survival flashlights that you could charge by shaking up. She remembered hunters liking those back home in Tennessee. "Maybe ask for one of those that shake and light up so you don't need batteries?" she offered him. The people in charge would probably really like that.
"An even better suggestion," Kyle agreed as he headed them back over towards the elevator, where at least it would be dry. Another fork of lightning struck the sky, almost instantly followed by the crash of thunder.
When they made it inside, she led him to where she was sure the elevator was, sitting down on the floor beside it. She knew that she should get out of the wet clothing, but she had nothing to change into, so she would have to hope that she dried soon. "I remember hunts from where I was from, the boys had all sorts of survival gear that could be useful here, especially when the lights go out like this." She hoped that it never happened again, but she preferred to plan for things than simply hope.
"Hunts?" Kyle sounded surprised, though only vaguely so. He knew other people hunted, but it was just that - other people. Entirely removed from his city life where the only guns he had come across had been in the hands of criminals. And even then he only encountered them via the evening news, never in person. The idea of dressing in orange vests and going out to shoot helpless animals... Well, given he was a vegetarian there was yet more reason for him never to have done anything like that.
He certainly didn't look like the hunter type to her. It made her curious as to what he was in here for. Maybe some white collar crime? There was no telling. "My ex-husband used to go out with his friends all the time during hunting season. Far too cold for me," she said. Besides, she was always too busy to go off and do anything silly like that. Not that she didn't know how to use a gun or was afraid to use one. There were those that knew that wasn't the case at all.
"I never saw the appeal," Kyle admitted out loud. "Seemed kind of... barbaric, really," he added. There was a touch of caution in his tone. Once upon a time, he would have simply given his opinion and if people didn't like it, well then - that was their problem. Since prison had happened, he had got a whole new education in the fact that sometimes, if people didn't like what you said, they made it your problem.
Grace mused on that for a moment. "It can be sometimes," she said, thinking of some of the rituals performed by first time hunters. "Some like to see it as a bonding experience, though. Why they can't find others ways to bond I'll never know."
"Guess not," Kyle said, agreeing with that. He sighed and sat back against the wall, overly aware of the darkness which indicated that the power was still out. "Wonder if we're going to get power back again at all tonight - the way this storm is going." It certainly wasn't showing any signs of letting up any time soon, that was for sure.
"I wonder why this place does not have some sort of backup generator," Grace mused. She knew that the prison that she had been in had something to that affect. It wasn't a good idea to leave prisoners without electricity for too long. It might lead to riots. She wondered what would end up happening in this place while no one could really watch them.
"You'd think that would be a given," Kyle agreed. As far as he could see, with anywhere which may have bad weather, a backup would be a given. But, clearly not.
"At least this will bring to their attention that something needs to be done," Grace told him. "I wonder what the other prisoners are up to right now?" Causing a ruckus, more than likely. Some seemed to thrive on chaos. Grace was flexible, but she preferred order.
Grace's second question just served to remind Kyle that he had been meant to meet with Leandro tonight. With everything that kept being thrown in their path, he had to wonder if it was just not actually meant to happen. No - he wouldn't think like that. He was going to be more positive. Cautious, maybe - but positive. "Guess nobody's going to be doing what they planned, that's for sure," he offered up.
Grace shook her head. She wasn't sure what she would have done tonight, but being stuck in a different wing than her own room was not what she had planned for sure. She may have just relaxed and read or something, but at least this made things interesting. "No, tonight seems to be the night for changes of plans," she mused. "Hopefully no one gets too carried away with a night of almost freedom."
Kyle laughed a little at that. "I'd say this is a long way from freedom. The walls are still there, everything's still there - we're just more trapped than we were before. Prison isn't freedom, just because people aren't watching."
Grace chuckled. "You may realize that, but I'm sure there are others out there who might think that just because no one is watching, that means they can get away with more." She laughed again. "Then again, I'm sure that's what landed a few people in prison as well."
"Oh, I understand that," Kyle said. "I just think there's a world of difference between 'freedom' and 'getting away with stuff'," he explained. "If someone thinks that real freedom is just doing things and not suffering the consequences, then there's really something very wrong with the way they see the world. And one day they'll have a very harsh wakeup call." Hell, he felt like he knew that better than most. The difference was that Kyle knew that he had been wrong. He had already had that wakeup call.
She nodded as she listened to his explanation. "You're a very bright person to realize that," she told him. While she would never think that what she did to get in jail was wrong, she did feel that people shouldn't cross her simply because they thought she wouldn't find out. "Besides, I'm sure the people who run this place have other ways of finding out what happened tonight." She'd always had her ways, after all.
Kyle frowned a little a cocked his head to one side as he looked at her, wondering if she was being patronising with that comment. It felt very much like a mother praising her child and that was not at all what he had been going for. He didn't like being talked down to, and it raised his hackles at the thought that maybe that was what she was doing. He swallowed it though - he was making a concerted effort to be less of a bitch these days. "I'm sure they will. I predict that as soon as the electricity is back on we'll all be 'invited' to write a private entry dealing exactly what we did with our time tonight."
Grace wasn't intentionally being patronizing. She was just honestly used to...mothering people a bit. She had four daughters and ran her own 'business' like and extended family (just with one very dominating family head). Seemed like she couldn't turn it off while she was here now. "I'm sure you're right, or they'll ask us to admit to wrong doings again."
"At last then they would be being consistent. If not at all prepared for all eventualities." Kyle paused and then sighed. "This is going to be a very long night, isn't it?" he posed, sounding depressed. It had finally hit home that the likelihood was that he wasn't going anywhere until tomorrow at the earliest. He was stuck here.
She sighed when Kyle asked if this was going to be a long night. "Seems like," she said. If nothing else, she would certainly have some ideas to relay when the power came back on to their overlords.